After the End
by SamCyberCat
Summary: After Robotnik had been defeated there was really no need for the Freedom Fighters, was there? Sally reflects upon how she may not be needed from now on. Drabble fic. Slight SonicxSally.


Author's Notes – Found this Sonic/Sally drabble sitting around my harddrive and decided to finish it up. Nothing special, just a bit of Sally's musing. The drabble is based after "Doomsday" but before any Archie/Fanfic details of "What happens next" occur. Its also Pro-Sally, so if you don't like her don't waste time reading it just to flame me about your views on her.

---

Moods are often said to be affected by the weather, and the dark forests that surrounded Knothole, blocking out most of the light, had always suited the grim mindset of its inhabitants during Robotnik's reign. When he was defeated they expected it to get lighter, but of course it didn't. It stayed dark and mistrusting as always.

Spitefully Sally believed this was because of the people. This was not her usual frame of mind at all; she loved the people and had put her life on the line for them on a regular basis. But it was clear that the people did not love her.

Now the war was over they didn't need a strategic mind to plan battles, they needed a princess. Something she could never be.

Of course they didn't need a hero either but people could be biased at times and because Sonic was such a beloved public figure he was still seen as being needed, even if there was nothing to fight. People just expected him to find new danger and adventures to keep him occupied. And they didn't want Sally slowing down his image. Sally was a princess and heroes did not need princesses.

At present Sally sat on a rock outside of the village. What did princesses do in a village just saved from destruction? She knew what a tactical leader did during a war. The planning was never a problem. But being a princess was a different matter.

Perhaps the people were right. Perhaps she should just sit on an imaginary throne in an imaginary castle while Sonic went off to fight imaginary danger in lands that none of the Freedom Fighters had ever heard of. She had always been by his side to help him and if being by his side would become a burden to him then she did not want to be by his side anymore.

And yet…

She wanted to be somewhere. Helping someone, doing something that would make Mobius less dangerous than it was. Just because Robotnik was gone it didn't mean that everything was all right again. There were so many dangers left. She'd glimpsed them during the war and if she could do something to stop them then that was what she wanted to be doing. Not being a princess who did not know what it was to be a princess.

As she tilted her head back in mid-musing she saw someone was watching her. Once upon a time it would have startled her to see someone staring at her so closely but over the years she had gotten used to Sonic appearing out of nowhere. She spun around in her sitting position to face him.

"We've been looking for you all morning," Sonic said cheerfully, "Didn't want to bother you because you seemed lost in thought," he added.

"Bother away," Sally replied, "I've done enough thinking for the moment."

Sonic gave her an almost worried look then carried on, "We've just about finished salvaging what we can from Robotropolis for the moment so we've decided to deal with some of the stuff we didn't have time for while Robotnik was around."

"What kind of 'stuff' are you talking about?" Sally asked, her interest piped.

"There's still a lot we don't know about the Void, it'd be worth looking into that," Sonic started, "But it's the Floating Island that I think will interests you. Rotor's picked up some odd reading from there. It might not be as uninhabited as we first thought. Remember the maze we went through? Well he seems to have a theory that there could be something existing there other than what we saw. It was all over my head but I think if you talked to him about it then you'd understand it better than I did."

He had started walking back towards Knothole now, as if signalling that this was where they were going next.

"Sonic, wait!" Sally called, reaching out as he walked away.

"Yeah?" he replied, turning to look at her.

"After we've spoken to Rotor about his theory… What do we do then?" she asked, knowing that the rest of her life depended on the answer. Would she be the imaginary princess? Or would there be a cause to continue striving for?

"We go check it out of course," he replied casually, "Then we go see to the Void. There's never time to sit around Sal."

She smiled. He was right. The world still needed a tactical leader to work out how to make it a better place. It did not need a princess. She would never be a princess.

And with that she got up and followed Sonic. She followed him knowing that there was a destination very far away that the two of them would continue to journey to for a long time to come.


End file.
